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This page is all about the running times of CEIA episodes. If you are using a graphical browser, please see the graphics version of this page.
In the information that follows, ``first half'' includes everything from the opening scene to the first commercial bumper (the CEIA one, not the Nickelodeon one). ``Second half'' includes the second commercial bumper (coming back from the commercial break) to the ``Clarissa Explains It All was taped at...'' voice-over after the closing credits.
Note that these running times are for the episodes as they are now aired by Nickelodeon (U.S.) and not necessarily the times for the episodes as they were originally aired. This is important to realize because the first season shows had a different opening titles sequence and didn't have the ``taped at'' voice-over after the closing credits.
If you want to use these running times to aid in taping the episodes, be sure to add 10 seconds for the two Nickelodeon commercial bumpers (``We'll be right back...'' and ``And now back to...'') and an additional 2 to 2.5 minutes for the commercial break.
Okay, here's the info in tabular form:
First Second
### Episode Half Half Total
--- ------- ----- ------ -----
101 Revenge 8:25 11:27 19:52
102 School Picture 11:31 14:01 25:32
103 No T.V. 11:01 14:26 25:27
104 Urge to Drive 14:04 11:21 25:25
105 CNN 11:07 14:07 25:14
106 Haunted House 12:31 13:37 26:08
107 Bully 13:27 12:17 25:44
108 New Addition 11:21 13:41 25:02
109 Brain Drain 12:44 13:12 25:56
110 Bake a Cake 13:53 11:40 25:33
111 Parents Who Say No 10:57 14:38 25:35
112 Cool Dad 12:09 13:16 25:25
113 Sick Days 12:58 12:45 25:43
114 Crush 11:08 13:09 24:17
115 She Drives Me Crazy 11:31 12:45 24:16
116 Sam.....Darling 12:00 12:18 24:18
117 President Ferguson 13:57 10:21 24:18
118 The Return of Mafalda 11:48 12:29 24:17
119 The Great Debate 12:40 11:37 24:17
120 ME 101 13:08 10:40 23:48
121 The Understudy 13:42 10:35 24:17
122 Can't Buy Love 11:22 12:55 24:17
123 Misguidance Counselor 12:16 12:01 24:17
124 Sam In Love 12:01 12:02 24:03
125 A New Look 11:45 12:13 23:58
126 Total TV 12:58 10:16 23:14
127 Janet's Boyfriend 12:50 11:12 24:02
128 The Darling Wars 12:58 11:20 * 24:18
129 Poetic Justice 11:38 12:39 24:17
130 Sam's Swan Song 14:02 10:16 24:18
131 Punch the Clocks 12:26 11:51 24:17
132 The Silent Treatment 13:41 10:01 23:42
133 Involunteering 12:46 11:26 24:12
134 Take My Advice...Please 13:33 11:14 24:47
135 Marshall's Mid-Life Crisis 12:28 11:50 24:18
136 Football Fever 11:47 12:20 24:07
137 Life of Crime 13:03 11:14 24:17
138 Marshall's Parents Visit 13:27 10:51 24:18
139 Blind Date 13:02 11:16 24:18
140 The Flu 12:15 11:48 24:03
141 ESP R US 12:08 11:51 23:59
142 Commitment 11:25 12:25 23:50
143 Road Trip 12:32 11:28 24:00
144 The Bicycle Thief 13:06 11:12 24:18
145 Boy Thoughts 12:25 11:50 24:15
146 Hero Worship 12:40 11:40 24:20
147 A Little Romance 10:57 13:00 23:57
148 The Zone 11:56 12:22 24:18
149 Tale of Two Moms 10:54 13:23 24:17
150 Don't I Know You 11:18 12:50 24:08
151 Babysitting 10:59 13:16 24:15
152 Educating Janet 12:55 11:23 24:18
153 The Cycle 12:23 11:54 24:17
154 A New Mom 11:40 12:38 24:18
155 Editor-In-Chief 14:06 10:39 24:45
156 Piper Comes to Visit 12:49 11:58 24:47
157 Alter Ego 12:13 12:06 24:19
158 Sam's Dad 13:30 10:48 24:18
159 The Firm 10:39 13:40 24:19
160 Janet & Clarissa, Inc. 11:50 12:28 24:18
161 Ferguson Explains It All 13:01 13:32 26:33
162 Dear Clarissa 12:59 11:18 24:17
163 UFO 10:53 13:25 24:18
164 Clarissa Gets Arrested 10:56 13:12 24:08
165 The Final Episode 10:34 14:15 24:49
* includes 2:05 ``It Came From Somewhere Else''
Now a few graphs. First, simple plots of the first-half, second-half, and total times:
First-Half Times
......................................................................
.
.
14-. o o o o o o o
. o o o o
m . o o o ooo o o o o o o oo
i . o o o o o o o oo o
n 12-. o o o oo o o o o o
u . o o o o o o o o
t . o o o o o o o oo
e . o o
s 10-.
.
.
. o
8-.
......................................................................
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
episode
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Second-Half Times
......................................................................
. o
. o o
14-. o o o o
. o o o o o o oo
m . ooo o o o
i . o o o o o o o o o
n 12-. ooo o o oo o o oo
u . o o o o o o o o o o o
t . o o oo o o
e . o oo o
s 10-. o o o
.
.
.
8-.
......................................................................
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
episode
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Total Running Times
......................................................................
.
. o
26-. oo o o
. oooo ooo
. o o oo o
m . oooooo ooo oooo o ooo ooo oo oooo oooo oo
i 24-. o oo o o o oooo o o o
n . o
u . o
t .
e 22-.
s .
.
.
20-. o
.
.
......................................................................
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
episode
Notice the definite drop in total running time from the first season to the second. Interesting! I wonder if this is because they went back and added the second-season opening titles sequence to the first season episodes. Was the original opening very much shorter than the current one?
To get an idea of the distribution of running times, here's a few histograms:
Histogram of First-Half Times
. +--+
12-. | |
f . | |
r 10-. +--+--+ |
e . | | | |
q 8-. +--+ | | | |
u . | +--+ | | +--+
e 6-. | | | | | | +--+
n . | | | | | | | |
c 4-. | | | | | | | |
y . | | | | | | | +--+
2-. | | | | | | | | |
+--+ | | | | | | | | |
0-+--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
............................................
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
minutes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Histogram of Second-Half Times
.
12-. +---+
. | | +---+
f 10-. | +---+ |
r . | | | |
e 8-. | | | |
q . | | | +---+---+
u 6-. | | | | | |
e . +---+ | | | | |
n 4-+---+ | | | | | +---+---+
c | | | | | | | | | |
y 2-| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | +---+
0-+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
.........................................
10 11 12 13 14 15
minutes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Histogram of Total Running Times
.
40-.
. +--+
. | |
. | |
f 30-. | |
r . | |
e . | |
q . | |
u 20-. | |
e . | |
n . | |
c . | |
y 10-. | |
. +--+ |
. | | | +--+--+
. | | +--+ | |
0-. +--+ +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
............................................................
18 20 22 24 26 28
minutes
Notice the small variability (spread) in the total times compared to the first-half and second-half times (even taking into account the change of scale of the ``minutes'' axis). This is evidence that they had a target running time that they were shooting for. If the first half was too long, they shortened the second half, and vice-versa. Of course, we all knew this, but I think it's neat that you can see it in the plots. (By the way, the main way they controlled the length of the second half was by running longer or shorter credits.)
The strongest evidence for this phenomenon comes from a scatterplot of the second-half times vs. first-half times -- i.e., each point is a coordinate pair (x=1st-half, y=2nd-half) for an episode.
Second-half vs. First-half Times
............................................................
. o
. o
. o
. o
14-. o
.
. o o o
. o o
. oo o
. o o o
2 13-. o o
n . o o o
d . o
. o oo
h . o o o
a . o o
l 12-. o o o
f . oooo
. o o
. o o o
. oo o
. o oo o
11-.
. oo
. o o o
.
. o oo
.
10-. o
............................................................
9 10 11 12 13 14
1st half
(Pearson's correlation for this plot is r = -0.69.)
Here we see clear evidence that as first-half time increases, second-half time descreases. Pretty cool, huh?
The point far away from the others is ``Revenge'' (#101), which has a very short first half. This episode also has the shortest total running time, as you can see in the time series plot above.
More fun stuff! Here are some summary statistics for the running times broken down by season. All values are in minutes (e.g., 24.50 = 24:30).
The numbers are followed by ``boxplots'', which simply summarize graphically the information in columns 2 through 6 -- respectively the minimum value, lower quartile (or 25th percentile), median (50th percentile), upper quartile (75th percentile), and maximum value. The mean and standard deviation are not displayed in the boxplots.
First-half times:
Season Min Q1 Median Q3 Max Mean StdDev
1 8.42 11.12 12.15 12.97 14.07 12.01 1.528
2 11.13 11.75 12.27 12.97 14.03 12.45 0.912
3 10.90 11.75 12.43 12.95 13.68 12.32 0.821
4 10.57 10.91 12.22 13.00 14.10 12.14 1.243
all 8.42 11.52 12.38 12.98 14.10 12.26 1.075
Boxplots of First-Half Times by Season
....................................................
14-. -+- -+- -+-
. | | -+- |
. | | | |
13-. +-+-+ +-+-+ +-+-+ +-+-+
. | | | | | | | |
m . +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+
i 12-. | | | | | | | |
n . | | +---+ +-+-+ | |
u . +-+-+ -+- | | |
t 11-. | -+- +-+-+
e . | -+-
s . |
10-. |
. |
. |
9-. |
. -+-
....................................................
1 2 3 4
season
Second-half times:
Season Min Q1 Median Q3 Max Mean StdDev
1 11.35 12.28 13.27 14.02 14.63 13.11 1.128
2 10.27 10.67 12.02 12.48 13.15 11.69 0.990
3 10.02 11.35 11.83 12.38 13.38 11.88 0.795
4 10.65 11.63 12.47 13.47 14.25 12.49 1.225
all 10.02 11.35 12.03 13.00 14.63 12.18 1.111
Boxplots of Second-Half Times by Season
....................................................
. -+-
. | -+-
14-. +-+-+ |
. | | +-+-+
m . +---+ -+- -+- | |
i 13-. | | | | | |
n . | | +-+-+ | | |
u . +-+-+ | | +-+-+ +---+
t 12-. | +---+ | | | |
e . | | | +---+ | |
s . -+- | | +-+-+ +-+-+
11-. | | | |
. +-+-+ | -+-
. | |
10-. -+- -+-
....................................................
1 2 3 4
season
Total Times:
Season Min Q1 Median Q3 Max Mean StdDev
1 19.87 25.42 25.53 25.72 26.13 25.12 1.605
2 23.23 24.05 24.28 24.28 24.30 24.15 0.279
3 23.70 24.10 24.28 24.30 24.78 24.20 0.211
4 24.13 24.30 24.32 24.77 26.55 24.62 0.682
all 19.87 24.25 24.30 24.75 26.55 24.44 0.858
Boxplots of Total Times by Season
....................................................
. o
.
26-. -+-
. +-+-+
. +---+
. +-+-+
. -+-
. o +-+-+
. | |
. +===+ +===+ +=+=+
m 24-. +-+-+ +-+-+ -+-
i . -+- -+-
n . o
u . o
t .
e .
s .
.
22-.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
20-.
. o
....................................................
1 2 3 4
season
This last one needs a little explanation. If a value is ``too far'' away from the rest of the data, it is labeled an ``outlier'' and is plotted separately as a point (for the exact rules used to identify outliers, see any standard intro-level statistics textbook).
We see that each season contains at least one ``unusual'' episode. These are summarized below.
Season Episode Comment 1 ``Revenge'' (#101) way shorter than usual 2 ``Total TV'' (#126) shorter than usual 3 ``The Silent Treatment'' (#132) shorter than usual 3 ``Take My Advice...Please'' (#134) longer than usual 4 ``Ferguson Explains It All'' (#161) way longer than usual
Finally, we look at boxplots of running times for all episodes.
Boxplots of CEIA Running Times
....................................................
. --+--
14-. --+-- |
. | |
m 13-. +---+---+ +---+---+
i . +-------+ | |
n 12-. | | +-------+
u . +---+---+ +---+---+
t 11-. | |
e . --+-- |
s 10-. --+--
.
9-.
. o
....................................................
1st 2nd
half
The outlier is ``Revenge'' (#101), which has an unusually short first half, as we saw before.
Boxplots of CEIA Running Times
..............................................
.
. o
.
26-. o
. o
. o
. --8--
. |
. |
. |
. +------+------+
. | |
. | |
. +======+======+
24-. |
. |
m . --+--
i .
n . o
u .
t .
e .
s .
.
.
22-.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
20-. o
.
..............................................
total time
Here we see lots of outliers!
(The ``8'' denotes two outliers at nearly the same place.)
There are many more than we have seen when breaking down the episodes
by season.
This is easily explained by noting that the first-season shows were,
on the average, longer than those in the later seasons.
Thus there are many unusually long first-season shows.
The two shortest episodes are ``Revenge'' (#101) and ``Total TV'' (#126). The six longest ones (longest to shortest) are ``Ferguson Explains It All'' (#161) ``Haunted House'' (#106), ``Brain Drain'' (#109), ``Bully'' (#107), ``Sick Days'' (#113), and ``Parents Who Say No'' (#111).
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